Catriona Ward’s Little Eve is her most recently published novel in the United States, but was published in the UK in 2018 where it received both the August Derleth and Shirley Jackson Awards. TorNightfire has been making a big push with Ward’s novels having brought her outstanding Last House on Needles Street to shelves in 2021 and Sundial earlier this year and now Little Eve. This novel is proof that the people behind TorNightfire have a great eye for writers to back.
From Catriona Ward, the international bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street comes Little Eve, a heart-pounding tale of faith and family, with a devastating twist.
Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel.
“A great day is upon us. He is coming. The world will be washed away.”
On the wind-battered isle of Altnaharra, off the wildest coast of Scotland, a clan prepares to bring about the end of the world and its imminent rebirth.
The Adder is coming and one of their number will inherit its powers. They all want the honor, but young Eve is willing to do anything for the distinction.\A reckoning beyond Eve’s imagination begins when Chief Inspector Black arrives to investigate a brutal murder and their sacred ceremony goes terribly wrong.
And soon all the secrets of Altnaharra will be uncovered.
The novel opens with the scene of a bizarre mass killing – a ring of five people are dead, all with their right eyes removed. Told in two timelines (1917 & 1945), we learn about Eve’s family in the castle of Altnahara off the coast of Scotland, her siblings (Nora, Dinah, Elizabeth) and how the head of the family, “uncle” played games of psychological manipulation with his “children.” Uncle is preparing his “children” with strange rituals involving snakes in with the end of the world looming. He is utilizing his gift which he calls “The Eye.” These rituals seek to impart those gifts to his children. The later timeline deals with the long-lasting effects of massacre of Eve’s family on the village of Loyal, the only survivors from Eve’s family are her and her sister Dinah. A white-clothed inspector, Christopher Black, arrives and befriends Eve as he tries to get to the heart of her family and the death of them.
There’s an air of myth around Eve’s family of siblings and their “uncle,” who is also known as The Adder. Coupled with Eve’s family is the broken-down castle of Altnahara, which lends an air of gothic mystery to the story. I felt immediate resonance with Scott Hawkins’s powerful The Library of Mount Char and the “siblings” under the care of “Father” in that novel. Ward brings a deeper intimacy to the characters in Little Eve as well as more contained stakes. More recently, Eve’s family had a similar aura as did the Book Eaters of Sunyi Dean’s eponymous debut novel. Point being, Ward has tapped into something mythic, almost primal, with Eve and her family that elevates the story above murder mystery or gothic tale.
Little Eve touches many topics in its slim, but potent length. There’s the concept of “grooming,” psychological manipulation, cults, animal cruelty, and of course child abuse (both mental and physical). Although this is a fictional tale set nearly a century prior to today, the games Uncle plays with his family are frighteningly real and are very much cultish in nature.
The way the children are presented, it seems as if “that’s how things always have been” with Uncle and “normal” the way life is conveyed through Even and her siblings and his family. Of course, we as the reader realize Eve’s “family” is anything other than normal and we learn more about the family’s origin as the story progresses towards conclusion. It is a dark, gothic, haunted tale of tragedy and death, told with extremely vivid prose giving the overall feel something very ethereal.
Little Eve is a novel that is eerily resonant and will set your neck hairs standing with some of the dark scenes Ward evokes. An October release primes this as a great Hallowe’en read, but is a novel that could be appreciated any time.
Recommended
© 2022 Rob H. Bedford
Published by Tor Nightfire | Hardcover | October 2022
Excerpt: https://tornightfire.com/download-a-free-digital-preview-of-catriona-wards-little-eve/
Twitter: @CatrionaWard
Review copy courtesy of the publisher
